Chapter 11

chapter eleven stop what? Wait? So, huh? The fight ends before it begins—something I wish happened more often. "Wracksaw did this," Skaelka says. "Wracksaw turned him into... this unnatural beast." With her hands out, like she's trying to calm an angry dog, Skaelka wades out into the swamp.

第十一章阻止什么？等待? 所以,嗯?吵架还没开始就结束了——我希望这样的事情经常发生。 “Wracksaw做到了这一点，”Skaelka说。 “莱克锯把他变成了…… 这只不自然的野兽。”斯卡卡伸出双手，就像试图安抚一只愤怒的狗，她涉水走进沼泽。

The Arachnacanid stops yanking against its chain. Each breath is a low groan. "It doesn't look like a threat now," I say. "It just looks like it's in pain." "Like the Drakkor," Dirk says. "I was about to say the same thing, friend," Quint replies. I shoot them both a "we get it, you went on a cool adventure and became bosom buddies with something called a Drakkor, don't know what that is, but I'm guessing it's probably like a sentient beachball and I'm 92 percent sure that guess is correct" look. Water splashes as the Arachnacanid settles into the swamp. Its mouth slowly opens... "Loe WOOSTf HOest......" "Whoa," I whisper. "It can talk." "The language is not entirely familiar to me," Skaelka says. "But Skaelka will do her best to translate." The Arachnacanid's head sinks into the watery ooze for a moment—then jerks up again. Its words come in long, slow gasps. "Hoesft." "It tells Skaelka it was the final innocent creature in the fortress. Wracksaw experimented on it," Skaelka says, turning from the Arachnacanid to us. "Wracksaw chained the monster here to guard the

蜘蛛不再猛拽自己的链条。 每一次呼吸都是低低的呻吟。 “现在看起来不像威胁了，”我说。 “它看起来很痛苦。” “就像德拉科一样，”德克说。 “我也想这么说，朋友，”昆特回答。 我给他们俩拍了一个“我们明白了，你们经历了一次很酷的冒险，和一个叫Drakkor的东西成为了知心伙伴，不知道那是什么，但我猜它可能像一个有知觉的沙滩球，我有92%的把握猜对了”的表情。 当Arachnacanid进入沼泽时，水花飞溅。 它的嘴慢慢张开……“love WOOSTf HOest......” “哇，”我低声说。“它会说话。” “语言对我来说不是很熟悉，”Skaelka说。 “但是斯卡卡会尽力翻译的。” 蛛形蜘蛛的头在水里沉了一会儿，然后又猛地爬了起来。 它的话语是长而缓慢的喘息。 “Hoesft。”它告诉Skaelka，它是堡垒里最后一个无辜的生物。 Wracksaw在它身上做了实验，”Skaelka说，把目光从蛛形纲转向我们。 锯怪把怪物锁在这里看守

cliff-entrance during the pivotal moment of knowledge-extraction..." "I mean this in the least-jerky way possible," I say, inching forward. "But it doesn't appear to be the most effective guard." "It does not attack because... it recognizes me," Skaelka says. "It saw Skaelka inside the fortress. It knows Wracksaw has hurt Skaelka, too." I'm suddenly struck by a realization. A weakness— a blind spot—in Wracksaw, in Thrull, and maybe even in rezzoch Evil understands nothing but evil. Wracksaw must not have counted on one of his experiments sympathizing with a fellow survivor because Wracksaw probably doesn't even know the meaning of the word. Real, true evil—it can't contemplate the idea of "good." Dæß Cöél Dd'ég, Skaelka takes a deep, shuddering breath. I've never seen her like this before. "Our friend tells me only evil remains inside the fortress." June's face lights up—if there's only evil inside, that means there's no roadblocks to her big Fortress Breaker moment. She starts to punch the air, but Dirk catches her fist. "Read the room, dude." "Right. Sorry." The Arachnacanid surges up again. "lJG$t."

在知识提取的关键时刻，悬崖入口……” “我的意思是尽可能用最不夸张的方式，”我说着，向前挪动了一点。 “但它似乎不是最有效的后卫。” “它不会发动攻击，因为…… 它认出了我，”斯卡卡说。 “它看到斯卡勒卡在堡垒里。 它知道骷髅锯也伤害了斯卡卡。” 我突然意识到。 一个弱点——一个盲点——在Wracksaw，在Thrull，甚至在rezzoch邪恶只知道邪恶。 Wracksaw肯定没有指望他的一个实验会同情一个幸存者，因为Wracksaw可能甚至不知道这个词的意思。 真正的邪恶——它无法思考“善”的概念。 Dæß Cöél Dd' sade， Skaelka深吸了一口气，浑身发抖。 我从没见过她这个样子。 “我们的朋友告诉我，堡垒里只剩下邪恶。” 琼的脸亮了起来——如果里面只有邪恶，那就意味着她的堡垒破坏者时刻没有障碍。 她开始挥拳，但德克抓住了她的拳头。 “看房间里的人，伙计。”“正确。 抱歉。”Arachnacanid再次涌起。 “lJG。”

Skaelka looks like her ax suddenly weighs two tons. It almost seems like... the Arachnacanid asked for something... It says carry out your duty as a warrior and end my suffering, please. What Skan? No, you can't. "I am bound to oblige. My ax is sharp, and I will be swift," Skaelka says matter-of-factly. Then, softly, she adds, "The creature will be dead soon regardless. Wracksaw's foul experimentation has seen to that." I look away as Skaelka lifts the ax high. There's no sound for a long moment. Then the air whistles as she brings the blade crashing down. CLANG!

斯卡卡的斧头突然重了两吨。 这几乎看起来像……蜘蛛蛛要了一些东西…… 上面写着履行你作为战士的职责结束我的痛苦，求你了。 Skan什么?不，你不能。“我一定会帮你的。 我的斧子很锋利，我会很快的，”Skaelka实事求是地说。 然后，她轻轻地补充道：“不管怎样，这个生物很快就会死去。 骷髅锯的肮脏实验已经证明了这一点。” 斯卡卡高高举起斧头，我把目光移开。 很长一段时间没有声音。 然后，空气呼啸着，她把刀刃摔了下来。 铿锵声!

The metallic sound spins me around. I exhale, relieved, when I see that Skaelka has only sliced through the chain. The Arachnacanid slips beneath the surface. Free of this place. Skaelka wades back to the water's edge, then sits down, hard. Barnacles glow around her. Her eyes shut, and she rests her arms on the hilt of her ax. "I... I could not do what it asked," Skaelka says. Her voice is shaky as she lifts her head and looks at us. "Nor can I enter the fortress again. I am too afraid of encountering Wracksaw. I... I cannot." June inhales sharply. "But... sure you can," she starts, but Dirk grabs her hand and pulls her into a huddle. "Quint and I spent a lot of time with Skaelka," Dirk whispers. "Inside her head, too. If she says she can't, she can't. We gotta respect that." Dirk's right. I know that. June does, too. But—this is bad. We were counting on Skaelka to get us through the fortress. The ground rumbles beneath us, and we all look up. A geyser of something like steam erupts from the peak of the fortress. As it dissipates in the cold wind, we hear a sudden— KRAK!

金属声使我旋转。 我松了一口气，当我看到斯卡卡只是切开了链条。 蛛形纲在水面下游动。 离开这个地方。斯卡卡涉水回到水边，然后用力坐了下来。 藤壶在她周围发光。 她闭上眼睛，双臂搭在斧柄上。 “我……我不能按照它的要求去做，”斯卡卡说。 她抬起头看着我们，声音有些颤抖。 “我也不能再进入堡垒了。 我太害怕遇到锯锯了。 我…我不能。”琼猛地吸了口气。 “但是……当然可以。”她刚要开口，但德克抓住她的手，把她拉成一团。 “昆特和我花了很多时间和斯卡卡在一起，”德克低声说。 “也在她的脑子里。如果她说不行，那她就不行。 我们必须尊重这一点。”德克是对的。 我知道。六月也是如此。 但是——这很糟糕。我们指望斯卡卡带我们穿过堡垒。 大地在我们脚下隆隆作响，我们都抬起头来。 一个类似蒸汽的间歇泉从堡垒的山顶喷涌而出。 当它在寒风中消散时，我们突然听到一声——“咔哒”！

Skaelka has slammed her ax into the ground, using it to stand. "That exhalation of air," she says, nodding toward the plume. "It causes a memory to return... Inside the fortress is a Directarium—it will show you the location of the heart." "And that's where we place the Fortress Breaker," June says, her spirits lifting. But ah, how exactly do we find this directorium thing? I remember paths arteries leading through the fortress. They led me to the directorium-And from there I found a way out. Arteries, heart, so evocative. Skalka you know how to paint a picture? Pretty ugly picture. "The Directarium is similar to your Maparatus; they are living maps, connected," Skealka says. "The Maparatus can lead you to the Directarium. Find the

Skaelka把她的斧头猛击在地上，用它来站立。 “那呼出的空气，”她说着，朝羽毛点了点头。 “它会使记忆恢复…… 城堡里面有一个指南，它会告诉你心脏的位置。” “这就是我们放置堡垒破坏者的地方，”琼说，她的精神振奋起来。 但是，我们到底要怎么找到这个目录呢？ 我记得通往要塞的道路。 他们把我领到指路牌，我从那里找到了一条出路。 动脉，心脏，如此令人回味。 斯卡尔卡，你知道怎么画画吗？ 非常丑陋的画面。“总局和你们的马帕拉图差不多；它们是活生生的地图，相互联系，”斯卡尔卡说。 “马帕拉图斯可以带你去指挥所。 找到